Creating a launch plan

Enhanced plan

You create a launch plan in one dialog, Create New Product Plan. It asks for the essentials: where and when the products launch, which new products are in the plan, and which existing products they should sell like. Logistified builds the launch curves when you create the plan, and you fine-tune them on the plan’s page afterwards.

Open the dialog

Go to Inventory Planning › New Product Planning and click Create New Product Plan. The dialog has five sections: Plan Details, Launch & Horizon, Individual products, Size groups and Forecast. The buttons at the bottom (Details, Launch, Products, Size groups, Forecast) jump to each section.

Every new plan starts in Draft.

Plan Details: name and launch locations

Name is optional. Leave it empty and the plan is named after its plan number, for example NP-00001 · New product.

Launch locations are the stores or warehouses the products launch at. Pick one or more, or tick All locations to use every active location when the plan is created. A shop with a single location has it picked already.

Each product is planned once per launch location, each with its own curve. With more than one location, the dialog shows how many plan rows that makes, for example “3 products × 2 locations → 6 plan rows”. A size group is counted with its sizes, for example “1 size group (4 sizes) × 2 locations → 8 plan rows”: every size is a plan row at each location.

At each location, the curve is built from what the similar products sold at that location. A location where they never sold starts at zero, and the plan tells you so. See Plans at several locations.

Large plans. Above 200 rows, the dialog warns: “That is over 200 rows, and large plans are slower to edit. You can still create it.” A plan also has a maximum size. The Individual products section shows how many products the plan can hold at your locations and horizon, and tells you when a selection doesn’t fit. Pick fewer products or locations, or a shorter horizon, or split the launch into two plans.

Launch & Horizon

Default launch date is day 0 of every curve: the day the products go on sale. Each product can have its own launch date, which overrides it.

Horizon is how far past the launch the plan runs: 1, 2, 3, 5 or 6 months (about 30, 60, 90, 150 or 180 days). The default is 5 months. Later, Edit details shows the horizon in days (Horizon (days)), so 5 months reads as 150.

Individual products

Each individual product is forecast on its own curve.

Add products offers Browse products, Scan barcodes, Upload a spreadsheet, From a forecast view and Virtual materials. See Adding products to a plan.

Each product row shows the product’s name with its variant and SKU underneath, and has:

Volume ×: 1 plans what an average similar product sold, 0.5 half of it, 2 twice as much.
a launch date: empty (it reads Plan date) means the plan’s default launch date.
a remove button.
Similar products: click Similar products to open the list, then Add similar product › Browse products or Virtual materials. Each similar product has a Weight, 1 by default. A higher weight gives that product more say in the curve.

A product can be added without similar products. Its curve then starts at zero, and you plan its weeks by hand on the plan’s page.

Picking several sizes of one product. When you pick two or more variants of one product with Browse products or Virtual materials, Logistified asks Group this product by size? Group by size puts them in a size group; Keep separate adds them as individual products.

Size groups

A size group plans the sizes of one product together: one forecast for the product, split across its sizes by a percentage. Click Add group to start one. Each group card has its own Add variants, its Volume ×, the size split with Split evenly, Normalize to 100% and Suggest from history, and Similar products for the whole group. A group card you leave without sizes isn’t saved with the plan.

Everything about size groups is on the Size groups page.

Forecast

Feed into forecast, on by default: the plan’s curves are added to your demand forecast once the plan is Confirmed.
Stop feeding on first real sale, off by default: a product drops out of the plan’s forecast as soon as it has real sales of its own.

You can change both later with Edit details. See Feeding the forecast.

Create the plan

Click Create plan. While something is missing, the button is greyed out and a hint beside it says what:

Hint	What to do
”Couldn’t load locations. Reload the page.”	Reload the page, then open the dialog again.
”Pick at least one launch location, or tick All locations.”	Pick a location in Plan Details.
”Set a default launch date to create this plan.”	Set Default launch date.
”Add at least one product or size group.”	Add an individual product or a size group.
”Too many products for this plan. See Products.”	Remove products or locations, or pick a shorter horizon.

While the plan is being created the button reads Creating… and the dialog can’t be closed. If the plan can’t be created, the dialog stays open and says why. Otherwise Logistified builds every curve from the similar products and opens the new plan on its Plan tab, in Draft. From there you check the curves, adjust them, and confirm the plan. See Similar products & the launch curve.

Walkthrough: one product at two locations

Go to Inventory Planning › New Product Planning and click Create New Product Plan.
In Plan Details, type a name, for example Merino hoodie launch, and pick two Launch locations, for example Berlin and Hamburg.
In Launch & Horizon, set the Default launch date and leave Horizon at 5 months.
In Individual products, click Add products › Browse products and pick the new hoodie. The dialog reads “1 product × 2 locations → 2 plan rows”.
Open the product’s similar products, click Add similar product › Browse products and pick two hoodies you already sell. Leave their weights at 1.
Leave Feed into forecast on and click Create plan. The plan opens on its Plan tab, with a curve for the hoodie at each location.